


Reunion Dinner: The Canon Remix

by mercredigirl



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Assimilation, Chromatic Character, Diaspora, Female Protagonist, Food, Gen, Immigration, POV Female Character, Sourcelanders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-26
Updated: 2011-02-26
Packaged: 2017-10-15 23:18:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/165905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercredigirl/pseuds/mercredigirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Midnight in the park, 1864. There is a picnic. Pearl is late. No one cares.</p><p>Companion piece to my Racebending story <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/143212">Reunion Dinner</a>. Internal canon follows <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/140484">Chang E</a> by <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/havocthecat/pseuds/havocthecat">havocthecat</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion Dinner: The Canon Remix

**Author's Note:**

  * For [such_heights](https://archiveofourown.org/users/such_heights/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Chang'e](https://archiveofourown.org/works/140484) by [havocthecat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/havocthecat/pseuds/havocthecat). 



> **Warning for one instance of the n-word, period racism, & enforced immigrant-status passing.**

Pearl arrives late, making no excuses. She crosses the park briskly, ignoring the mud on her shoes, and seats herself on the cotton blanket without preamble.

‘Oh, darling,’ Katherine drawls in an accent that does not belong to her. ‘Where _have_ you been, and where is our dear Anna?’

Really, though, Pearl should not complain. Her accent is too precise to be her own, either.

‘Annabelle is with your maid, I believe.’

‘Emily?’ Katherine shakes her head. ‘I wouldn’t have thought her one to skip a cosy evening like this to spend time with – well! Someone like my Emily.’

‘A witch?’ interrupts Damon.

There is excitement in his voice, as though he thrills in forbidden words slipping from his lips. It would amuse Pearl, if she were not so jaded already; the thrill has long been gone from this life.

‘A negress.’ Katherine’s shrug is elegant, and Damon laughs dutifully.

Stefan frowns and glances away.

Pearl wonders how much Old Man Salvatore would be enraged, to know that his two sons – _heirs_ – have stolen out at night for the company of easy women. Giuseppe would have surely been an upright Catholic on the Old Continent, and he is an upright Protestant in America. Even less pleased would he be to know that they are picnicking on fettunta and porrata and cardi friti, not when he has starved the Italian from his kitchen table.

Not for the first time Pearl wishes she could feed her daughter har gau daintily, or pour sweet sago down Anna’s throat instead of gwailo blood.

Instead she watches with narrowed eyes as Katherine picks at chickpeas and asks, ‘What are _these_ called then?’ and Damon mumbles a lazy ‘I don’t remember.’

‘ _Il mangiare è un richiamo_ ,’ Stefan murmurs, like a memory half-recalled, like a phrase only overheard.

Pearl’s ears are pricked up, enough to hear Stefan’s whisper, and to hear Anna and Emily and Harper three fields over. But her eyes remain on Katherine, and she does not miss the pang of longing sweeping over that proud and fine-boned face.

‘So,’ says Pearl, quietly, reaching for a hunk of dark dry bread.

It is much easier to forget, something that Katherine is only just starting to learn. Much easier for the one to forget Miao Feng, and the other Katerina Petrova.


End file.
